The Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC) assigned the New England Conservatory of Music a hood lined “gold above white”, according to IBAC lists from 1927 and 1948. The heraldic division between the two colors was not defined, but because Salem College in North Carolina had already been assigned gold above white, divided per chevron, New England Conservatory’s colors were probably divided either per reversed chevron or per bar.

After the conservatory changed its school colors to royal blue and old gold, the Bureau apparently redesigned the music school’s hood lining pattern. Lists compiled by Kevin Sheard in Academic Heraldry in America (1962) and Academic Dress and Insignia of the World (1970), as well as an Intercollegiate Bureau list from 1972 described New England Conservatory’s hood lining as royal blue with a gold (not old gold) chevron.

To avoid duplicating the hood linings assigned to Ursuline College (royal blue with a gold chevron) or Canisius College (royal blue with an old gold chevron), here the pre-1927 hood lining pattern the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume assigned New England Conservatory of Music has been used, but with the school’s 1950s colors of old gold and royal blue.